Cariboo race cancelled

Bit of a bummer with the news that the Cariboo Marathon has been cancelled due to lack of enough snow to safely hold the race. This was the highlight loppet of my season, and I was feeling quite ready for the 50 km classic race. Oh well, time to switch to skate mode to prepare for the Sigge’s P’ayak, a 50 km skate event at Callaghan where they have lots of snow. So did my first skate ski session last night after a couple weeks focusing on classic…and my legs really felt it. The techniques are so different and I quickly lost the strength in my skating muscles. I think the slow snow conditions didn’t help but I’m quite certain it wasn’t the only reason for my tiredness.

Wednesday was an interesting ski at Cypress, it was snowing buckets on the mountain making for very soft tracks with lots of loose snow on the trails…it felt more like back-country skiing. Was fun to be out there in such snowy conditions, especially once I gave up on trying to go fast.

Excellent classic skiing

Cypress’ trails were in excellent form for classic skiing tonight…I had plenty of grip even when diagonal striding up Lower Powerline…so of course I had to climb it 3 times. And as a bonus the groomers did a great job setting the tracks, nice and smooth with nearly continuous tracks to ski without the gaps and bumps that had plagued the trails lately. The skiing was so nice I considered to skip my interval workout to just enjoy some steady paced cruising to take advantage of the sweet snow/trail conditions…but stayed the course and did the workout.

Darn icy roads!

Failed in our attempt to ski Callaghan Saturday. As the road narrowed in the canyon north of Squamish the highway became a parking lot. The compacted snow that fell Friday had turned to ice with the heavy rain…not even snow tires would help if a tire couldn’t contact the pavement. We even passed a snow plow/de-icer that was stuck on one of the hills. So after 20 min. not moving on the highway we turned around with many others. Bit of a puzzlement how the highways folks didn’t have the roads open…the weather forecast was bang on so this wasn’t a surprise. Whistler businesses should be pissed with the city folks, this is their peak season and they had many potential customers not able to reach them due to the roads not being cleared. So after 3.5 hours of driving all I got was a sore back. Had planned to try going back to Callaghan Sunday but after recovering on the couch for a few hours I decided my back shouldn’t sit in the car for that long again so soon. Late afternoon I decided something needed done to salvage something from the day, was feeling like I’d accomplished nothing and the forecast for Sunday was looking like crap, rain and strong winds. Hmmm, so I decided to go skiing Saturday evening, figuring the trails would have quieted down since most would have skied during daylight hours. Katja got home from here paddle  at the Cove just before 5, so I jumped in the car and headed to the hill. I knocked off 3.5 hours of classic skiing, covering 47.9 km at an average of 13.4 km/h. I felt much better about my day and about being back on track in my preparations for the Cariboo Marathon in 2 weeks time.

In racing news, Canada’s Devon Kershaw finished 3rd in Sunday’s World Cup event in Estonia, a 15 km individual start classic ski race on an apparently grueling hilly course.

Good skiing but no race

Had a great skating session Monday evening…the trails were in excellent condition, soft packed is the best description I can think of. I ticked off 30 km in 2 hours and found that I could hold my speed through all the corners and downhills thanks to the cooperative snow…no ice and no build up of soft snow. Only bummer was my eyes after skiing, once at the car my eyes became very irritated, like they had been scratched, was difficult to keep them open and they were watering non-stop. Made for a tricky drive home, fortunately I could follow the flashing lights of a snow plow to get down the mountain.

Tuesday I picked up a pair of ski glasses from Deep Cove Outdoors on my way to the mountain. Bob recommended the CASCO Nordic Spirit Vautron, it has both a photochromatic lens for daytime use and a clear lens that worked well while skiing at night. Fortunately my eyes seemed to like the new glasses, had no vision issues post last night’s ski. On the down side John and I had planned to team up for the TNR which the website indicated would be a team pursuit race where teams of 2 ski classic and skate, 2 laps each, alternating. At registration we found out the race had been changed to an individual pursuit where each skier does 1 lap skate and 1 lap classic…great. I don’t own, and don’t plan on owning combi-boots, those designed for both skate and classic skiing, and from what I’ve been told do neither overly well. Anyways, I am not impressed with the poor communication so I’ll be taking a break from the TNRs for a while…will focus my skiing on improving for upcoming loppets. I ended up skating for an hour Tuesday evening, left earlier than I might have since my face and ears were getting cold…was -10 deg C when I left the mountain. Not too cold to ski but need to dress a bit warmer for those colder conditions.

Ran to/from work today on snow covered roadways and trails. Traffic on Knight St. bridge was slow but people seemed to be using more than their usual caution on the treacherous roads. But I got to run past some of the slow moving traffic this morning on the bridge…I really enjoy that!

Loppet racing at Salmon Arm

Did our fist loppet of the season Saturday at Salmon Arm’s Larch Hills Nordics. Both Katja and I did the 36  km Reino Keski-Salmi loppet which was 2 laps of an 18 km course. The trails were in excellent condition thanks to the recent snowfall…and by recent I mean the snow that fell Friday night…while we were driving to Salmon Arm. We left home around 5:45 and arrived in Salmon Arm at 11:45, with an about 45 min. stop in Hope for dinner. The snow started to fall shortly after we hit the Coquihalla Hwy, it took a break as we passed through Kamloops then started again for the final leg of the drive. The Golf handled the snowy roads very well making the drive a bit less stressful than it could have been. The hardest part was getting past slow moving vehicles without  being able to see the lanes. The bumpy strips of pavement at the edges of the road were useful for helping guide our course. After a short night’s sleep we were back on the road by 7:15 heading to the ski area, a 15km drive. The race started at 9am…and it started right on time…so much so that we were almost caught off guard. Everyone was standing in the starting area chatting waiting for the start then BANG, a gun went off and we all realized the race had just started…time to ski!

Starting at the back I had time to find my groove while working my way past some of the skiers. My skis only had so-so grip climbing the hills, but they were short enough that I could grunt up them with crappy technique. After about 7 km there was an aid station and while most in my group slowed to grab a drink I kept going and ended up not seeing any of those skiers for the rest of the race. Shortly after the aid station was a fairly long but not steep hill and I was slowly gaining on another skier, Tracy from 100 Mile House after meeting her post-race. I didn’t quite catch her by the top of the climb and there followed a long winding descent where she sped away out of sight. I eventually caught her on a long slightly inclined section and at the same time I was passed by a late-60′s aged skier who I later learned was a former Olympian. He had a unique technique, he leaned way forward the whole time he skied, his upper body was nearly horizontal, almost as though he was riding a racing bicycle. Anyways, soon there was another descent on windy trails and both them took off on me. Shortly after the start/finish area I managed to once again catch up. As the trails flattened out I was able to double pole away from my companions…didn’t really do this on purpose, just noticed that after 1 of the double poling sections I found myself all alone. I ended up maintaining my lead until after the big climb…it wasn’t until after the long downhill section that Tracy caught me, commenting about my double poling as she easily diagonal strided past me up the hill. I stayed with her until once again the trails sloped downward shortly before the finish where she once again took off. I finished about 25 seconds behind her in 2:36:04. Overall I was happy with my race considering that my lower back was sore most of the race, had been sore during drive the night before. And I really felt flat the entire race, had no snap in my legs  so could not do any bursts to quickly power over the shorter steeper hills.  But I was really happy with my double poling which I felt I could do as much as I wanted without tiring, this should come in quite handy at the Cariboo Marathon in February.

On the drive home there was lots of snow on the Coquihalla from Merritt to Hope but again we had no issues other than getting past slower vehicles. We hit snow and hail again at Langley but we fortunately didn’t hit any traffic snarls. After a long 10 hour sleep we did a long walk along the river today, followed by a snoozed on the couch while watching football. Time for a quick dinner now then its off to our Sunday evening curling match.

Tuesday race

Did the Tuesday Night Ski race again tonight, 2 standard laps with classic technique. I got onto the trails early enough to do a couple warm up laps…only to stand around for 15 minutes waiting for the race to start, doh! Grip was in short supply tonight but had really good glide, even outside the tracks. There were 3 waves of mass starts tonight, I was in the middle group. I got off to my usual slowish start so had some skiers to chase. I managed to pass 2 skiers on the flatter sections double poling hard skiing outside the tracks. This allowed me to take more direct lines on the trails instead of following the winding tracks…and all the double poling practice I’ve done recently certainly helped. On the second lap I caught up to another skier on the uphills but he was also fast on the double poling sections, at least while we were in the tracks. Near the end of Sitzmark he took a spill while re-entering the tracks…he said he was ok so I kept on going. I knew this guy could ski well so I double poled really hard on the flat trails hoping to open as big a gap as possible before the downhill. As I started the downhill I couldn’t see anyone behind me so things were looking good. But I was quite slow on the final hill tonight, the soft snow near the bottom had been catching my skis on the warm up laps, so I was spooked on this section. I snow plowed the bottom of the descent, fighting to stay under some control and managed to just cross the line before a white flash blasted past me…I knew this guy could ski!

Did a really good ski last night, 1.5 hours on good snow for skating. My legs finally recovered from Friday’s runs, which seemed to help me ski a bit quicker, worked on switching between 2-skate, 1-skate and offset, trying to maintain speed while smoothing out my transitions between the different techniques.

It’s almost loppet time!

3 hrs in the bank

Very good skiing at Callaghan Saturday with Katja and John. We all managed to ski 3 hours to help us prepare for upcoming loppets. JG and I were moving pretty fast, taking advantage of good snow conditions. The snow outside the tracks was excellent, very little build up of soft snow, but not icy so we could take the corners more aggressively, maintaining more speed through the winding trails. The only tricky part was the 3 long climbs up Madeley Road where grip wasn’t so good. The thin layer of fresh snow was covering hard packed tracks so glide was good but seemed my crowns would grip the fresh snow but this layer would slide over the harder snow…at least that is how I rationalized my lack up grip. We ended up skiing/running up the hills outside the tracks on the first lap, then before lap 2 JG applied red special which helped him climb in the tracks. My legs were slow to recover after the 2nd round of the 3 long climbs, but they eventually came back and I could enjoy hammering over the short steep hills on Norwegian Woods. Seems my thighs were in fact suffering somewhat from Friday’s running, they were tight/sore Saturday morning before the ski, then after the drive home they had really tightened up and were sore…can still feel them this morning. Will probably not ski today, might go paddling.

And in racing news, Canada’s Devon Kershaw finished 4th in the Tour de Ski, a 9 stage (11 days) event modeled after cycling’s Tour de France. The final stage was brutal, only 9 km long but finished with a 3km climb up a downhill ski run. Some good videos of the racing can be found here.

I’m back!

My cold has subsided enough so as of Thursday I’m back in action. Skate skied Cypress Thursday evening on nice hard packed trails with a bit of sugary snow slowing down the climbs. Was nice to do some skating again but afterwards felt it in my feet/ankles…different muscles than I use classic skiing. Even managed to survive running to work today after a 2.5 week layoff from running. Hopefully my legs won’t punish me for the run tomorrow when we ski Callaghan…hoping to get in 3 hours of classic to prepare for the upcoming loppets…wish me luck!

I hate being sick!

I don’t do sick very well, so unless I have muscle/joint pain or fever I usually keep doing the things I want to do, but go a  bit easier…if have to. I’ve had a cold now since the evening of Dec. 15. Fortunately it wasn’t a big factor on our recent trip to the Cariboo,  just needed lots of tissues. January 2 was a different story…I actually slept 12 hours, which is unheard of for me, and followed it up with many naps throughout the day. I had no energy…just barely survived a long walk along the river with Katja. I felt much better this morning, enough to take my ski gear with me to work…just in case I would be well enough to do the Tuesday night race. But no luck, I was sneezing and chasing a runny nose all day. Since I want to do the Larch Hills Loppet (uggg, scuse me, have to go blow my nose…ok, where was I?) right, there is a 36 km classic loppet in Salmon Arm in 2 weeks that I’m hoping to do so figured I should get more rest to shake this cold. Racing in the rain on Cypress tonight likely would not have helped the situation…although hammering up lower power-line three  times would have been a cool/challenging race to experience. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

100 Mile House skiing

We spent the past week at The Hills Health Ranch at 100 Mile House, well, actually it’s at 108 but who’s counting!

This was a big holiday change for us…staying in a hotel setting and not in our tent…but we adjusted well enough. They didn’t have nearly the amount of snow as Cypress, but what their trails lacked in snow they more than made up for in excellent terrain. Was so nice to ski for extended periods of time not going up or down, just gliding along on flat and  rolling trails. I did so much double poling on the 5 days we skied, well at least on 4 of the days…yesterday my skis didn’t seem to have the same glide or maybe my arms were too tired, I seemed to be doing much more diagonal striding which was still nice. We skied 3 times at The Hills and 3 times at 99 Mile Nordic Center. Both locations have excellent trails…there are so many trails at The Hills but not all of them had enough snow to be skied. I’ll want to explore more of the trails at a time when they have more snow. We were hoping to practice on the Cariboo Marathon route at 99 Mile’s trails, but the 20 km loop with he big hill was not tracked so we did the 10 km loop multiple times. We skied classic each day to take advantage of the nice trails in preparation for upcoming classic loppets, including the Cariboo Marathon in early February. And the trails had some sticks, branches, trees, rocks showing so I didn’t want to damage my slick skate skis…put some interesting markings in the bases of my classic skis…oh well, it was worth worth it!

Actually Katja had her first skate ski session yesterday, using my equipment. She did quite well…I suspect she’ll be getting skate ski gear in the near future.

The Hills is a very nice place, but rustic enough that we felt at home. We were spoiled to some excellent meals prepared by Chef Richard…he makes an awesome spinach salad and the pastry encrusted chicken with chutney was so tasty!

Being a ranch, they had many horses and 3 miniature donkeys. We enjoyed feeding them treats of carrots which they really appreciated. We’d like to visit again in the summer to go horseback riding…maybe we can combine it with a spring fishing trip since some of our favourite lakes are in the area.

For New Years they had a winter carnival, which meant they had a DJ blasting music over the ski hills, a couple campfires with hay-bales to sit around, hot drinks and hot dogs, a frozen pond for skating/hockey and a tube park. We enjoyed playing on the tube park…sliding down icy hills on fancy inner tubes, complete with a rope tow ride back to the top of the hill…it was really fun. At midnight there was an amazing fireworks show, a much bigger show than I expected.

We even got treated to a nice massage thanks to Xmas gifts from my parents…like I said, we really got spoiled.